TERRORIST ATTACKS /Asbestos Targeted In Cleanup Effort

EPA's Whitman: 'No reason for concern'

By Hugo Kugiya | STAFF WRITER

September 16, 2001

Hundreds of asbestos cleanup workers representing more than a dozen local unions and several contractors continued the massive and delicate task of removing the contaminant yesterday from buildings damaged by the collapse of the World Trade Center.

In the meantime, Christine Todd Whitman, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said yesterday that "there is no reason for concern," saying that the latest measurements of debris and air at ground zero and in areas tested in the financial district show the amount of asbestos is at or below background levels, which she defined as 1 percent or less of the total sample.

While there is no doubt the debris from the collapse contains asbestos and that some was released into the atmosphere, Whitman said the situation is better than she had hoped. She said the EPA has regularly sampled dust, air and the persistent plume of smoke and particles rising from the wreckage. The highest recorded reading was 4.5 percent, Whitman said.

After taking readings from as far away as Brooklyn and New Jersey, the EPA is concentrating on a 10-block area surrounding ground zero, with help from 24-hour air monitors. Whitman said she is concerned about any reading above 1 percent. Generally, asbestos-related disease arises only from prolonged exposure, although there is no level of exposure that is known with certainty to be safe.

Nonetheless, some building owners themselves have hired companies to clean up the dust and debris blown into their buildings, treating the material as asbestos.

LVI Services Inc., based in Manhattan, the largest abatement and environmental cleanup company in the country, according to its president Burton T. Fried, has been hired by Verizon to clean its headquarters next to the World Trade Center site. He said he expects his company to clean other nearby buildings also contaminated with asbestos but declined to name which ones. While levels are generally low in the area and in buildings, strict removal procedures are being followed, Fried said.

"We have responded in other cases of disaster and can work in trying situations," Fried said yesterday. "We're addressing this situation with care. We have trained labor who have all the permits and know all the proper techniques for doing this kind of work . . . There is no substitute for manpower in this kind of work."

Fried said LVI was hired to clean up asbestos-contaminated buildings damaged by Hurricane Hugo, and during both the Bay Area and Los Angeles earthquakes.

In most cases, the buildings are first sealed. Compressors then create negative air pressure so no dust escapes. Workers primarily use vacuum cleaners with special filters and disposable cloths to wipe the area clean of asbestos. Fried said his company hires an independent laboratory to test the work area for asbestos before and after the cleanup. In addition, the building owners as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration conduct their own tests to verify results. Workers are supposed to wear sealed suits and respirators and get decontaminated before exiting the work area.

The abatement workers' progress, like that of the rescue workers, has been occasionally hampered by the threat of collapsing buildings and shifting debris, said David Roscow, spokesman for Laborers' International Union of North America, the umbrella organization of the local unions.

"For some, it's a situation they've never been in," Roscow said from Las Vegas, where the union is holding a convention.

Whitman said the EPA has also been monitoring the harbor water and drinking water for lead and industrial contaminants, but no pollutants have been detected.

In the future, she said, samples will probably also be taken from the tunnels, such as the Holland and Battery, through which debris has been transported.